Teachers at Longsands, largest school within the Astrea Academy Trust, poised to go on strike next week

A poster advertising the trust's "Astrea Ascent" behaviour diagram.

Teachers at the largest school within one of England’s most controversial academy trusts are to go on strike next week, their union has announced.

National Education Union members at Longsands Academy, a comprehensive in St Neots, Cambridgeshire which is controlled by the Astrea Academy Trust, will strike next Tuesday and Wednesday following a break-down of relations with management.

Talks between the two sides have been taking place this week, however – leaving open the possibility that the action could yet be called off.

The development comes months after the NEU suspended strike action at Longsands on the basis of an agreement that the trust would work with it on members’ terms and conditions and management practice and with, Education Uncovered understands, more than 20 staff set to leave the school this month.

The detail

NEU members at Longsands voted back in February to strike about management practices and working conditions, though action was suspended in March after Astrea reached an agreement with the union to review a number of working practices, and to give members the opportunity to be consulted ahead of further changes.  

However, relations have since broken down. The NEU said in its press release announcing the strikes that they been scheduled because of “adverse management practices” at Longsands.

It said: “Members are having to take action as the employer has not adhered to agreements reached with the NEU on 8^th March to resolve a series of concerns about excessive workload, changes to timetables and the school day, and job roles and responsibilities.”

In a letter to parents and carers as the strikes were announced this week, Dr Catherine Cusick, Longsands’ principal, wrote: “We are very sorry it has come to this. We have gone above and beyond to engage with the union, meeting weekly and sometimes twice-weekly to find a way through this for the last five months. We have compromised where we have been able, and have reached agreement on [NEU members’] concerns over professional development, timetabling and workload for middle leaders.”

However, the strike move indicates that sticking points have remained. The issue of management changing school policies with little or no notice has been a consistent point of concern for teachers, with a staff survey conducted as part of Longsands’ recent Ofsted inspection – about which I will be writing in more detail soon – seeing a high proportion of staff concerned about the impact of new policies on their workloads.

This website understands that more than 20 staff are due to leave the school at the end of term, after at least nine teachers, including five middle managers, left at Christmas and further departures at Easter. Staff turnover has been far higher than national averages, even within the multi-academy trust sector, as set out in a report from the Education Policy Institute recently. Education Uncovered understands that a talk given by Richard Tutt, Astrea’s director of secondary, at Longsands – and another Astrea school, St Ivo - in September, in which he gave the impression that staff not liking the trust’s methods were free to leave, has had an impact.

As Education Uncovered has reported, Longsands secured a “good” judgement from Ofsted following a visit from inspectors in February despite nearly nine out of 10 parents who registered their opinion saying they would not recommend it to others, and with the trust having flooded the school during the inspection with 25 members of staff who do not normally work there. There was no mention in Ofsted’s report of the high level of teacher turnover over the last year, including the departure of eight per cent of its teachers at Christmas.

Astrea’s highly centralised model of teaching, shaped in its secondary schools by the work of the American educators Doug Lemov and Barak Rosenshine, and its behaviour policies which are influenced by the government behaviour adviser Tom Bennett, have provoked controversy in Longsands and in two other nearby comprehensives run by the trust: Ernulf and St Ivo.

Paul McLaughlin, NEU regional secretary, said: “We are pleased that further talks have been agreed…We have worked hard to try and resolve issues that are preventing teachers and support staff focusing on the needs of their pupils. However, this can only happen if management meaningfully engage over the issues of concern.”

Helen Brook, the union’s Cambridgeshire branch secretary, said: “Despite a recent ‘good’ judgement by Ofsted, parental dissatisfaction remains high and the school continues to haemorrhage staff at an alarming rate. Unless the current management practices improve, the pupils and community will continue to suffer. We call on the employer to work with us to resolve these issues for the benefit of all.”